The Coyotes winger scored two goals - giving him 10 over the last 12 games, including three game-winners - triggering a 4-2 win Wednesday night over Anaheim in front of 9,124 at Jobing.com Arena.

"Sometimes, that puck finds you, and sometimes you're in the same spot, and it doesn't come, so you need luck to score goals in this league, I think, and, right now, I have a little bit of luck," he said.

As for his current hot streak, Vrbata, who leads the Coyotes with 11 goals, was not about to get philosophical about it.

"You guys keep asking me this question, but I don't know what to say," he said. "I don't think about it too much. You try to come to the game with the same mindset every game and play your game."

Vrbata's first goal snapped a power-play slump (1-for-24) for the Coyotes. Coach Dave Tippett said he liked the movement from both units despite the fact the special team went only 1-for-8 and was unable to cash in on a two-minute, 5-on-3 situation.

"It's good to see them get rewarded there," Tippett said. "Vrby's a good hockey player, a clever guy,that plays a real smart game, finds openings, and he's capitalized on those opportunities."

The victory was a key one for the Coyotes, coming off a grueling five-game road trip. They did not open especially strong, but ramped things up after the Ducks scored the game's first goal fewer than six minutes into the game.

Defenseman Keith Yandle tied it later in the first, and Vrbata made it 2-1 with 2:29 left in the period after taking an outstanding feed from Martin Hanzal on a power play. Late in the second, Vrbata scored again, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson clanged the puck off the skates of two defenders to stake the Coyotes to a 4-1 lead early in the third.

"Coming back off this trip, we talked about a lot of teams' situations when they come off a trip, they have a down game, and we didn't want that to happen," coach Dave Tippett said. "So we just put all that stuff on the table and talked about it, and our guys went out and they pushed hard.

"I thought we played a very solid game, a couple of breakdowns, we gave a couple breakaways, and Smitty (goaltender Mike Smith) came up big on a couple, but other than that I thought we were pretty solid throughout the game."

Smith, running his record to 10-3-3, made 19 saves as a tough Coyotes defense limited the Ducks to 21 shots, including eight in the first two periods. Corey Perry scored on a breakaway at 13:03 of the third to pull Anaheim within two. The Ducks' Jonas Hiller allowed the four goals in 29 shots.

"I can't really take too much credit for this one," Smith said. "The guys in front of me were outstanding, coming off the road trip like we did, it's always iffy how you're going to come out, but we really showed a lot of grit tonight and were in their face all night, so I didn't really do too much out there, but I'm really proud of the guys in front of me."

Ekman-Larsson had an assist to go with his goal, and Shane Doan pitched in with two helpers. Yandle also had a goal and assist, and Tippett said he played his best game of the season.

"He competed hard on every loose puck, made good, real solid plays, nothing fantastic, just real solid plays, and got rewarded with a goal and assist, by far his best effort of the year," he said.

Another positive was that the Coyotes, after getting the one-goal lead, were able to add on.

"Yeah, it was big for us to get the next one, we're up 2-1, we responded well when they got one on us, we started to get control of the game," Doan said. "We got that one, made it 2-1, we wanted the next one, make it 3-1, and we wanted the next one.

"Unfortunately, we didn't make it 5-1, but it was one of those games that we started getting going again."

Coyotes report

Key player: Coyotes right wing Radim Vrbata, with two goals.

Key moment: Coyotes center Martin Hanzal, sprawled on the ice, made a no-look backward pass to Radim Vrbata, and the power play gave gave the Coyotes a 2-1 lead late in the first period.

Key number: 1. Power play goals by the Coyotes in eight tries, but it broke a 1-for-24 skid.

View from the press box

Establishing the forecheck provided impetus for the Coyotes, and they pushed the tempo of the game, something coach Dave Tippett wanted to see. "When you're coming back off a hard trip like that (five-game road trip), you're wondering if you're going to have that tempo. Give our guys credit, they came out and competed hard."

Coyotes update: The Coyotes look to build off the back-to-back victories they notched to start a three-game road trip, nabbing the top spot in the Pacific Division. Forwards Ray Whitney and Radim Vrbata are tied for the points lead (24). Goaltender Mike Smith has 13 wins, two shutouts and a .931 save percentage.

Red Wings update: Goaltender Jimmy Howard (15-6-1) is having an outstanding season with three shutouts and allowing only 1.89 goals per-game. The Red Wings are 7-3in their past 10 games but losers of their previous two, both on the road. Right wing Johan Franzen (26) and C Pavel Datsyuk (24) are the top point producers.